LINUXGAMES

Version 0.1.004 of the Crystal Space-based MMORPG project Planeshift (screenshots) has been released; changes include:

• added credits page
• moving mouse over a char displays his name
• first person view
• new gazebo model
• new library building
• more trees
• /spawn command
• /pos command
• a workaround to limit the “pass-through-walls” problem
• code fixes

Planeshift 0.1.004 downloads: www.planeshift.it/download_client.html

Worth noting (and likely discussing) is the licensing of this project. The only packages available at this time are RPMs but the code is publically available under the terms of the GPL via CVS downloads. Other licenses apply to other parts of the game.

We neglected to mention this at the end of last month, but the PS2 Linux kit is shipping and began shipping on time. The kit costs $199 and you get a monitor adaptor, a 40GB hard drive, an ethernet adaptor, USB keyboard and mouse, and a PS2 Linux distro.

So, have any of you bought one of these and messed around with it much? How do you like it? I can think of one guy (wolf!) that was whining about it endlessly after he got his kit ;-)

Version 0.6 Real Time strategy game Boson has been released. According to the annoucement the code itself has had a complete rewrite. So there is a new set of features, bugs, and fixes. The major changes for this version are:

• auto-shoot: Defensive buildings automatically shoot at enemies when they are in range. Normal units do not do this yet.
• split views: you can split a display and play at several places on the map at once
• full network capability (please note that single player mode is quite boring without an AI)
• fog of war
• mineral/oil harvesting (experimental)
• fullscreen mode
• Map and scenario files are now XML based (was originally binary). All units can be configured using KConfig syntax
• music, sound and speech
• pathfinding (thanks to some excellent work by it’s hacker!)
• Most units actually have “sense”, e.g. if your Comsat station is destroyed your minimap will disappear.

Download: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=15087

Bill Kendrick wrote in to announce the release of Brickout a Breakout clone. This port is based on the X-Window version for the for the Agenda VR3 PDA. The major changes in this game include:

• SDL target
• Color version of the graphics (SDL only)
• Flickering effect when bricks are hit (SDL only)
• Sampled/synthesized sound effects in SDL version
• Music (SDL only)
• More levels!

Download (source): brickout-2002.06.09.tar.gz

Buck Satan from GameBanshee has posted his report of this year’s E3. The report focuses on the RPGs shown at the expo and, most importantly, covers Neverwinter Nights. Buck describes NWN as “by far the most impressive and advanced role-playing game [he has] ever seen in [his] gaming lifetime.”

Ralph Schmeisser from gamesforlinux.de wrote in to announce that he has posted some more (German) reviews:

• Unreal 1 Installer: www.gamesforlinux.de/Spiele/unreal1.htm
• Burgerspace: www.gamesforlinux.de/Spiele/2/burgerspace.htm
• BzFlag: www.gamesforlinux.de/Spiele/2/bzflag.htm
• Egoboo: www.gamesforlinux.de/Spiele/2/egoboo.htm
• Virtual Bill Kendrick: www.gamesforlinux.de/Spiele/2/virtualkend.htm

The Khronos Group wrote in to announce OpenML, a standard aiming to rival DirectX:

OpenML is a cross-platform standard programming environment for capturing, transporting, processing, displaying, and synchronizing digital media (2D and 3D graphics, audio and video processing, I/O, and networking). The 1.0 specification is available for download and use (royalty free).

The embedded subset of OpenGL is a proposed solution to bring advanced graphics capabilities to a variety of devices, appliances and embedded displays. It will be based on well-defined subset profiles of OpenGL and will enable the lightest weight interface between software and hardware. It will also be royalty free.Participation agreements publicly available at “Contributor” and “Adopter” levels to enable any company to contribute to the advancement of the next generation of embedded and dynamic media APIs. Or simply join the discussion groups to ask questions or offer suggestions.

Linux Game Publishing sent in this announcement regarding an agreement with Cognitoy:

Linux Game Publishing is pleased to announce that we have signed an agreementwith Cognitoy to continue publishing Mindrover for Linux.

We will be releasing Mindrover as soon as we can complete a production run ofthe game, and we will then be providing downloadable patches to bring the gameup to the current latest release level provided by Cognitoy.

Update: In another email LGP sent us, they state that Mindrover should start shipping to resellers in the next two weeks.

Jens Owen of Tungsten Graphics (mostly former VA Linux/Precision Insight employees) posted to the DRI developer’s mailing list with some excellent news about the future of DRI drivers for the ATi Radeon 8500 video card:

The Weather Channel is funding TG to develop an open source 3D DRI driver for the ATI Radeon 8500 graphics card. The driver will be released to the XFree86 Project around Q4 of 2002, to be distributed to the public in future versions of the XFree86 X Server.

Presumably this means that this Weather Channel is the one footing the bill for the development. Given that the current Linux support for the 8500 is limited to a binary-only driver that is intended for a related professional-level card, the delivery of an open driver is excellent news.

It should be noted that ATi is expected to announce their new line of cards, based on the R300 chipset used to run the Doom III demos at E3, in the coming months. Linux support for the 3D portion of those cards is unknown at this time.

Version 0.5.1 of the Pygame-based Dance Dance Revolution clone pyDDR has been releases. Changes and or fixes for this release include:

• the author can finally pass afronova and paranoia in basic mode
• ddrmat module cleanup (doesn’t create kernel taints)
• pyjoy is a little more verbose in describing what’s going on
• COLORS IN OFFBEAT ARROWS (the most requested feature!)
• a few minor optimizations ( == better framerates )
• configuration additions
  • scrollspeed can now be a decimal (floating-point) value
  • option ‘grading’ in configfile to turn off grading at end of songs
  • option ‘explodestyle’ – 0 for non-exploding, 1 for rotating only, 2 for scaling only, 3 for both types of ‘arrow explosions’
  • option ‘arrowcolors’ to decide which arrows get colored – 1 for all-same-color, 2 for offbeats-only, 4 for beat-offbeat-wayoffbeat
  • option ‘little’ to decide which arrows get DISPLAYED – 1 to turn off 16ths, 2 for eighths off, 3 for only quarter notes, 0 to disable
• debug mode: specify stepfile / mode at runtime and pyddr will play/exit (example: ./pyddr.py 6jan trick starts 6jan.step in trick mode)
• now displays total number of combos, and how early/late/ontime player is
• remembers which song it was on in the song selector again
• if the music file is bad/doesn’t exist, game won’t crash anymore
• at last, pyDDR timing works on mu’s machine. New option ‘mixerclock’ in config file to get song position from SDL_mixer instead of system.

Download: pyddr-0.5.1.tar.gz

On a side note, the new FAQ on the pyDDR site has alot of good helpful hints for how to install the game. There is also 3 new screenshots of pyDDR in action (Screen 1|Screen 2|Screen 3).

Jeff Freedman wrote in to announce a new (1.0 release candidate) version of Exult (screenshots):

Exult, the Ultima 7 game engine, is another step closer to a 1.00 release. Both ‘Black Gate’ and ‘Serpent Isle’ should be fully playable, and we’re looking for any last-minute bugs before we pronounce it fully stable.Information is at our web site, exult.sourceforge.net .

We’ve also been making a lot of progress with ExultStudio, our map editor, and Ucc, a script compiler. A few of us have been working on a mod called ‘SourceForge Island’, and you can see screenshots at: uccshot2.png anduccshot1.png

Exult 0.99.1RC2 source: exult-0.99.1RC2.tar.gz

Version 0.17 of the pace adventure/combat game Epiar (screenshots) has been released; changes include:

• new title screen and menu
• new HUD w/ elliptical radar and targetting feature
• bug fixes and optimizations
• gameplay tweaks
• added the idea of fuel in jumping
• expanded universe

Epiar 0.17 downloads: epiar.sourceforge.net/downloads.php

Version 0.2.4 of the tactical war game Crimson Fields (screenshots) has been released; changes include:

• serious bugs with the computer player have been fixed
• a new map has been added
• players can now inspect neutral buildings

Crimson Fields 0.2.4 source: crimson-0.2.4.tar.bz2

Petr Sebor wrote in with this interesting finding regarding 3d Radeon 8500 support:

Do you know that the ‘workstation’ FireGL binary drivers are in fact Radeon8500 compatible?I have them installed on my debian / 2.4.18 machine and the GL stuff is running exceptionallywell! (at least all the apps I’ve tried)… Extension-wise, the driver seems to exhibit the same setas the windows one, so probably 8500 users might be able to run Doom3 at the time the linux binary ships… probably.

terracon also wrote in to report his success with the drivers:

ATI released drivers for the firegl 8800 which has the same core as the 8500 (r200) and it just so happens that these drivers work . So people that have been 3dless can downlaod these . They do work I have tested them out.

The drivers (README) can be downloaded from the Fire GL 8800 Linux/XFree86 Driver page at ATI.

As some of you may know, GarageGames was contracted by Sierra to update Tribes 2. Well, a beta patch for Windows was just released but there are no plans for a corresponding Linux patch. Chances are that this patch will break all compatibility between the two versions and Linux clients (and servers) will be left behind.

We have previously posted on Sierra’s attempt to gauge the effect of no longer updating the Linux client. But, I never heard an official decision from Sierra following the discussion. One person mentioned open-sourcing the T2 code and the only comment Sierra had on that was concerns regarding cheating and piracy.

So, some fans have put together a Tribes2 Linux client Petition site as an attempt to convince Sierra to continue Linux support for T2. Personally, I remain skeptical of the virtues of petitions, but if you think it will help get what you want, sign away.

Update: terracon pointed out that, in the patch announcement (as posted at Tribalwar), Alex Rodberg mentioned the status of Linux support:

The issue of Linux support is still looming and is currently stillunresolved. Sierra cannot support Linux code, but we are open to a reputableLinux development company picking up where Loki left off. None have offeredto date.

Version 20020605 of the free Windows implementation Wine has been released; changes include:

• better Mingw support, including cross-compilation on Linux
• still more dll separation work
• Winelib applications now get loaded much like builtin dlls
• some command-line options replaced by config entries
• multimedia improvements, including an MP3 decoder
• massive whitespace cleanup
• new Winelib file manager
• bug fixes

Wine 20020605 source: Wine-20020605.tar.gz

Linux Game Publishing wrote in with the following update on their Majesty port-in-progress:

We are pleased to announce that the first screenshot from Majesty forLinux is now viewable.

The URL for the screenshot is at: www.linuxgamepublishing.com/images/gamegraphics/8/screenshot0.gif

We intend to be releasing a weekly screenshot from the game, and theoverview of them will be available at www.linuxgamepublishing.com/screenshots.php?id=8

Christian Mauduit informed us of the release of version 5.5.0 of LiquidWar, a very interesting multi-player war game. From the release announcement:

The primary new feature is a meta-server which maintains a list ofavailable running servers. Locale support has been implemented forEnglish and French. The game now comes with 8 MIDI tunes. A bunch ofbugs were also fixed, especially concerning the GUI.

LiquidWar can be downloaded here.

Jeko announced the release of version 1667 (I assume it’s a version number) of Ultimate Othello, a very nice little Othello game for OS X and Linux using Gtk+. A source tarball can be found here.

Evil genius extraordinaire Bill Kendrick realized that the only competition that could possibly be mustered against his own porting skill was, in fact, his own porting skill. Given that the United States government is currently frowning on cloning, he decided to do the only sensible thing: build a virtual Bill Kendrick. Virtual Kendrick is available in source form and as a Zaurus .ipk package, and threats to make it interactive have been received by the Linuxgames.com staff.